If you could choose the last song you'd hear before you died, what would it be and why?

[Roland99]

Virtual Event with author Mike Ayers in conversation with Shea Serrano

If you could choose the last song you’d hear before you died, what would it be and why? Your favorite song of all time? Perhaps the one you danced to at your wedding? It’s a hard question that Mike Ayers has thought about for years, and his ironically upbeat book One Last Song asks 30 of today’s most inimitable musicians which song they would choose to be the last one they ever hear. Weaving together their explanations with evocative illustrations and poignant interludes—what your song to die to says about you, what songs famous people have died to, and more. The book offers insight into the minds of famous artists and provides an entry point for considering how integral music is to our own personal narratives.

https://store.wordsbookstore.com/virtual-event-mike-ayers

Link to tweet

For the last 2 years, i've been asking musicians what's the last song you'd want to hear for a book on @ABRAMSbooks. Now it has a release date! And cover!
@jimjames wrote a beautiful foreword. Visuals by @studioMUTI plus a surprise thing from @SheaSerrano

[Roland99]

1. As for me... either U2's "Bad (Live)" or "40"

[beachbumbob]

2. You can't always get what you want

[Docreed2003]

3. "The Weight" by the Band

I've always loved the imagery of that song.

Can't wait to check this book out

[MissLilyBart]

4. Kate Bush's 'Rocket's Tail'

[rzemanfl]

5. Warren Zevon's

"El Amor de Mi Vida." Two people know why. I am one.

[Wicked Blue]

6. Moondance

Van Morrison

[Drum]

7. Respighi's "The Pines of Rome"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pines_of_Rome

[catrose]

8. Probably Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Or "Dance Me to the End of Love."

Maybe the Faure Requiem (1st movement, if time is short). Or the Brahms Requiem would be good too. My husband played that for me when my father died. "Lacrimosa" from Mozart's Requiem. Bach Cello Suites--or "Ehre Sei Dire" from the Christmas Oratorio, lots of choices from Bach oratorios. "Leader of the Band," Dan Fogelberg. "Amazing Grace," maybe the mix of all known versions my husband made for me. "Our Last Summer" or "After All is Said and Done," ABBA. "Dona Nobis Pacem."

Obviously I will live forever.

[Xipe Totec]

9. Blood, Sweat & Tears - And When I Die

I'm not scared of dying
and I don't really care
If it's peace you find in dying,
well, then let the time be near

If it's peace you find in dying,
when dying time is here,
Just bundle up my coffin cause
it's cold way down there,

I hear that's it's cold way down there,
yeah, crazy cold way down there
And when I die and when I'm gone,
There'll be one child born and
a world to carry on, to carry on

[argyl]

13. Written by Laura Nyro.

I prefer her version. But that's just me.

[lostnfound]

10. Litany by Guadalcanal Diary

Because I played it for my mother to hear, in her final week of life, in 1988. It would be very meaningful for me to have that connection to her, in those precious bittersweet hours.

I see life like a mirror
And I see life so much clearer
We move so quickly
Who knows where the time goes
Where does this road lead?
No one knows, no one knows
Listen to the single heart beating
Rhythm for an ever-changing song
I see life with surprise
And I see life, whole, in your eyes
Take all your troubles
Put them in a common file
Light a fire with reason
Watch it rise, watch it rise
Listen to the single voice singing
Lifted in an ever-growing song
I see life without anger
I see life all together
I see life go on forever
Life goes on forever
Life goes on

[exboyfil]

11. It is Well With My Soul

Lyrics
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul
It is well
With my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul
It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul
It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul
It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Philip Paul Bliss / Christopher C. C. Stafford
It Is Well with My Soul lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group

[CTyankee]

28. This is alovely hymn. Hearing it sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir made it a

favorite for me.

I do like "Hallelulah" sung by k.d.lang is also wonderful.

Sheep May Safely Graze by Bach is lovely.

Oh, hell, play all 3.

[rownesheck]

12. Farewell and Goodnight

by Smashing Pumpkins. I've recently revisited the album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and I love when D'arcy sings on that song. I always loved D'arcy and named my 20 year old cat after her.

[Bayard]

14. Bookmarked till i can narrow down choices.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Don't Fear The Reaper

Blue Oyster Cult
Why? The lyrics make that obvious, & I'd like to hear that locrian mode guitar solo one last time.

[Binkie The Clown]

16. Beethoven's 6th Symphony, the Pastoral. Just because. nt

[Tracer]

17. Mozart's "Ave Verum".

Because it's the most calming and beautiful piece of music ever written.

[FakeNoose]

31. +1 Agreed, it's lovely and uplifting

[redstatebluegirl]

18. Imagine by John Lennon

It has always been my favorite song.

[TexasBushwhacker]

53. That's the first one that came to my mind n/t

[iamateacher]

19. June Apple

By Doc Watson or The New Lee Highway Blues by Dave Bromberg

[Harker]

20. ...

[Midnight Writer]

21. John Prine -When I Get To Heaven

[Tanuki]

22. Be Thou My Vision

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

23. Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis

Or Tallis' Spem in Alium.

Or Hovhaness' Prayer of St. Gregory

[consider_this]

25. OMG! Prayer of St.Gregory is mine!

I have wanted that for my funeral forever - it is like the soul ascending. Here is the recording I have played so many times (Smedvig on trumpet with symphonic organ):

From a different type music, I also like Enya's Na Laetha Geal M'òige. Meaningful lyrics (must translate) but the ethereal echo vocal seems to be a path to another world in some way.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

27. First time I heard it I was gobsmacked.

It's just unbearably gorgeous.

[consider_this]

29. Yep!

especially loved that echo-ey recording that blew me away. It is from the album:

Ceremonial Music for Trumpet & Organ
https://www.amazon.com/Ceremonial-Music-Trumpet-Smedvig-Murray/dp/B000003CZG
[The Prayer of St. Gregory, by Alan Hovhaness, was recorded on September 20, 1989 in the Church of the Advent in Boston, Massachusetts, using the 1936 Aeolian-Skinner opus 940 organ there.]

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

44. I think it's even more effective as it was written, for trumpet and string orchestra.

That's how I first heard it - in rehearsal for a mostly choral concert in which I was a member of the choir, and which included this piece as an orchestral interlude. The trumpeter was a first-rate professional (retired from the Minnesota Orchestra), and the rest of the small orchestra were also all pros, so the performance was excellent. I was familiar with a lot of Hovhaness' music but hadn't heard this one before, and I remember just standing there thinking, Holy crap, that was transcendent! The organ doesn't quite do it justice, I think.

[consider_this]

45. I must give the string version a listen!

[In_The_Wind]

24. Tears in Heaven

For my lost loved ones.

[Doc_Technical]

26. henryk grecki symphony no. 3 III. Lento - Cantablile Semplice (36:14)

[Ron Obvious]

30. John Cage

Since it's supposed to last 639 years and I would insist on hearing the whole thing before expiring.

[rurallib]

32. Beethoven's "Ode to Joy"

It'll make me want to get up and sing

[elleng]

33. Smetana's Moldau

Reflects nature; I live beside a river.

[Duppers]

51. One of my SO's favorites.

👍

[hunter]

34. Quiet.

I've suffered auditory hallucinations and tinnitus for most of my adult life.

I say most because when everything is exactly right with me I can ignore it.

[sinkingfeeling]

35. My Heart Will Go On.

[lpbk2713]

36. Tannhauser Suite Overture

Wagner

[zanana1]

37. Bridge Over Troubled Water

[Paladin]

38. "Shiver Me Timbers," Tom Waits version. (nt)

[Onlyserious]

39. "Feed Jake" ("he's been a good dog...")

The obvious choice for me is... "Feed Jake" ("...he's been a good dog.&quot

[Iggo]

40. The Song That Never Ends.

Seriously, though, Ode To Joy or the Flower Duet.

[lpbk2713]

42. That would be "It's a Small World After All". Sure you want to do that?

I was stuck in there for 45 minutes. I was ready to kill after that.

[demmiblue]

41. Mazzy Star - Into Dust

[Brother Buzz]

43. The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

[Calma]

46. The Calling Santana and Eric Clapton

[link:

|

[R B Garr]

47. "Expecting to fly"

By Buffalo Springfield, I guess it was also done by Neil Young.

I heard it when we watched the movie Coming Home. I can't even recall ever seeing that movie, but it was so long ago if I did. This song came on and it just gripped me. We both stopped and started Googling and looking it up.

That led us to this video, and the comments also talk about how it seems like you're entering Heaven. Such a beautiful song.

[Roland99]

48. I want to make a playlist of all this music

Something tells me it would make a wonderful soundtrack to a long road trip

[Iggo]

49. No shit.

Good idea.

[NNadir]

50. Beneath an Evening Sky - Ralph Towner.

Last edited Fri Oct 16, 2020, 12:21 AM - Edit history (1)

There was a night with my future wife, outside a small cabin in a grove of redwoods, beneath the sky on what was then the most beautiful evening, followed by a glorious morning, such that life became worth living.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

52. Sleeps Dark and Silent Gate- Jackson Browne

Resons are a little personal...